"For I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
Romans 1:16
Andrew Bonar at age 35 in 1845
Andrew Bonar had an early interest in the Jews. Being the people of God who generally had failed to see Jesus as the Messiah, they would have fascinated him on that account, but it is also likely that his interest and admiration for the older Scottish divines like Samuel Rutherford had an influence. Rutherford always spoke tenderly about the Jews as the 'elder' sister to the Church. There was also a movement of Zionism in the air.
At age 19, in 1829, Andrew Bonar
writes: "Visited the Jews' Synagogue. Interesting, and instructive too, to
us who look upon their delusion with a better knowledge."
This may
sound arrogant, but he was so convinced, even before he felt himself saved,
that Jesus Christ was the only way to God, that he always had a deep desire,
born out of compassion, to show them the better way. It does not appear from
his writings that he would have condoned the now increasingly popular view that
Jews need no evangelisation.. His love for the Jews made him want to reach them
instead, and support any missionary endeavour.
When he went to Edinburgh
for a while in 1837, after his work in
Jedburgh, he writes: "Hope of seeing some Jews in the town." While he is
there, the Committee of the Jewish Society make him their acting
secretary.
He writes in April: "Have been with Mr. C., at whose
house twelve of us were present to see how the Passover is kept by the Jews.
Very illustrative of the Scripture. I felt something of the reality of the
twelve disciples sitting down with Christ. Prayed and rejoiced in hope that
something was doing here for the Jews. I think the cause of the Jews is one
reason of my having been brought from Jedburgh here."
In
July: "Conversation with a Jew, Joseph Leo", and a week later: "Began
this evening to instruct the Jew, who seems really anxious to know."
In
September he is in Liverpool, where he writes: "We this morning got into the
synagogue, where I got opportunity of leaving a Jewish tract." In December
of the same year he is much encouraged by a meeting: "...many men and two
Jews, one lately come, Louis Königsberg."
During 1838 the proposed work among the Jews begins to take
shape. In February he receives a letter from Mr. Wodrow "telling me that he
was to present a memorial to the Presbytery about the Jews next Wednesday, and
requesting the prayers of all the friends of Israel here for that object."
Just over a week later he writes: "There seems to be now really interest
excited among some of the ministers for the Jews. I regard this as a direct and
memorable answer to prayer, and all the more that I have had no direct hand in
the matter." At the end of the month there is more: "Heard yesterday
more news about what the Glasgow Society mean to do for the Jews. Now there is
hope of getting our cause brought forward here and in several other places, and
even expectation that the General Assembly this very year may be brought to
take it up."
In March he attends a large prayer-meeting in Mr.
Wodrow's house for the Jews. He also hears of a school in Bombay where 200
Jewish children were taught by Dr. Wilson, "by assistance of our
societies."
In May the Jewish cause is to be brought forward in the
Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He writes: "Prayed much in the morning
for Israel. Saw in God's past doings, in regard to their cause among us, a most
special answer to prayer, and encouragement to go forward, and remembered the
promise, 'Blessed is he that blesseth thee.' So many ministers and people seem
interested all at once. Went to the Assembly. It was the last part of their
business, and was carried with much unanimity that a committee be appointed.
Praise, praise! I hope now it will be said of us, 'Rejoice ye with Jerusalem;'
our Church will be blessed in the joy of Zion."
Ten days later the
Committee for the Jews is appointed, and he writes: "At the sermon last
night was collected £61."
His talks with Joseph Leo during the
year before are evidently successful, because in August the entry in his diary
is: "Much helped. Thought and prayed for Joseph Leo, the Jew, who is to be
baptized to-day in St.George's." Louis Königsberg is also
baptized.
1839 brings a new
direction. In February he is "somewhat unsettled by the occurrence of a
proposal in Edinburgh to send Robert M'Cheyne and myself for six months to
inquire about the Jews throughout the Continent of Europe and even round
Jerusalem. The very thought of it, however, had the effect of making me feel
more called upon to speak now with earnestness while at home."
It is
of great importance to him to educate people about the Jews, and after he has
been preaching in Kelso, he writes: "..addressed the Sabbath-school children
about the Jews, which brought to my mind much the strange proposal now going
on.....I am now able to pray that if this proposed mission be one that will
effect anything I may be sent." Several weeks later he feels similarly:
"Enabled to-day and last night to feel more closeness and reality in prayer
for revival among my people, and in regard to the Jews."
In March
he hears that: "I am appointed along with M'Cheyne, Wodrow (whose
place was later taken by Rev. Dr. Keith), and Dr.Black to go upon the
expedition. I am giving this night wholly to prayer about this matter, its
success, and my part in it." He then receives "the letter of the
Committee requesting me to go to the Jews. It is a very solemn matter to
me.....Spent the forenoon in prayer."
He is worried about his people,
as he is by then minister in Collace. He says: "My people have no conscience
of the duty of attending to the Jews...", but at the end of March the
Presbytery gives him leave to go for six months.
On 21st March he leaves to
go on his journey, bound for France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Egypt, Palestine,
Smyrna, Constantinople, Wallachia, Moldavia, Poland, Prussia and Germany.
The "Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to
the Jews", published the following year, gives a very interesting record of
these travels. While he is away from his people, he sends pastoral letters,
which Mr. Nairne of Dunsinnane reads to the people.
On Friday November 22nd Andrew Bonar returns to Collace, and finds that
at his next service the church is crowded with people wanting "to hear
something about Jerusalem".
At the meeting of the Presbytery at Perth
in December, he is called to give a statement of the mission to the Jews, and
in the same month he goes to Glasgow and Greenock to attend meetings for the
Jews, "where I felt especially helped in preaching upon the
subject."
At the beginning of 1841
he mentions "I have been permitted to visit and preach in many more places
than before, in this way experiencing the blessing of the Jewish cause." An
important event happens on March 12th: "The day whereon the first missionary
to Israel was ordained in Edinburgh. A memorable day for the Church."
The Jews remain close to his heart. In August 1850 he writes: "Felt great sorrow at not
having prayed for the Jews or spoken for them in public to-day."
For
many years they are not mentioned in his diary, but when a new church is built
in 1878 during his ministry in Glasgow, he has arranged that there is an inscription from Proverbs 11
in Hebrew above the door.
These words were put there to remind people of the reason for the
existence of the church, and also in the hope that some Jews might see them,
and come in to worship the God of Abraham.
The Mildmay Mission to the Jews,
led by Mr Wilkinson, decided to send the recently converted David Baron
with James Adler to Scotland in 1881. Great
blessing attended their mission, and a friendship was formed with Andrew Bonar.
He wrote a letter to Mr. Wilkinson at the
Mildmay Mission. (Information from 'David Baron, A Prince in Israel' by
Ronnie McCracken)
In 1882, on July
2nd, there is reason for joy : "In the evening baptized the Jew, Marcus
Buck. I bless God that I have had this privilege in my ministry before its
close."
Seven years later, on May 25th, 1889 he writes: "Yesterday evening at the
General Assembly of our Church, that being the exact date of the time when,
fifty years ago, the deputation to Palestine began their journey from Egypt to
the Holy Land. Having been requested to be present and tell reminiscences of
that time, I was helped in doing so. And then Dr. Saphir (see note
below) spoke most profitably. I am the only survivor of the deputation, and
very few of those that took much interest in the Jews at that time, are now
alive. But how wonderfully the Lord has blessed this work! And how kind He has
been to me in connection with it. 'O for a well-tuned harp!'"
Adolph Saphir was a Jewish Christian preacher who came to the Lord along
with others, e.g. Alfred Edersheim, in response to the mission of five Scottish
clergymen (including Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray McCheyne) who traveled
across Europe in the first part of the 19th century, sharing Jesus with the
Jewish communities they passed through.
The lectures in the book below
were originally addressed to Gentile believers and approached issues such as
the nature of God's special people, His plans for them and Jewish evangelism.
This book is a reflection of the early stages of the modern Messianic Movement
in England.
'Christ and Israel' by Adolph Saphir , sold by
Jews for
Jesus
There is also a fascinating testimony of the conversion of Rabbi Leopold Cohn, D.D. in which he tells of Andrew Bonar and his congregation at Finnieston Church praying for him when he is baptized in Edinburgh.
In the early 1890's, David
Baron, together with C.A.Schonberger founded the Hebrew Christian Testimony
to Israel. From its very small beginnings in a rented room in the Whitechapel
area of the east end of London it quickly rose to become one of the best known
and most repected Jewish Missions in the world. In a short time the work spread
throughout Europe and on to what was then called Palestine, encouraged all the
while by the saintly Dr. Andrew Bonar who had become a devoted friend of the
work. Indeed the great Andrew Bonar Memorial Mission to the Jews, held to mark
the passing of that great man of God, was conducted by David Baron.
(More about David Baron in 'David Baron, A Prince in Israel' by Ronnie
McCracken)
An exciting new book about the Christian response to
Israel:
The Jews, Modern Israel and the New Supercessionism
by Dr.
Calvin Smith
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page created 2001 - updated 27 April 2009